The exhibition "Ten Years in Dhaka" is the brainchild of Santiago Fernández Mosquera and his enthusiasm to get to know the country which has been home to the project Inditex Chair of Spanish Language and Culture at the University of Dhaka for the last ten years and of which he is the current director.

The exhibition was inaugurated on June 2nd, at the Great Hall of Fonseca Palace, part of the University of Santiago, in the presence of the rectors of Santiago and A Coruña universities, the Bangladesh ambassador to Spain, H. E. Mohammad Sarwar Mahmood and the chairman of the Social Council of the University of A Coruña, Antonio Abril Abadín.

The photographic exhibition includes images that reflect the daily life of a country that is still outside our immediate scope of interest. Nevertheless, Bangladesh is home to an initiative that seemed a difficult challenge ten years ago: the creation of the Inditex Chair. The original aim was to teach Spanish and Latin American culture in Dhaka to the students of its university and, in general, to all Bangladeshis wanting to learn about a culture that has not always been close to their cultural context. This was made possible thanks to the Spanish language classes offered to more than 3,000 students over the years, in premises built to that effect by Inditex, but there have also been conferences, seminars, congresses, and exhibitions. This range of activities is rounded off by more than 30 scholarships to study at the two Galician universities for those students with proven academic records. Beyond these types of academic activities, the social focus of this project, in line with the approach set out by the sponsor Inditex, not only fosters the social inclusion of less privileged students but also includes a policy to promote the participation of female students, which has been highly successful in all its events, especially laudable in the social context of the country where the project is carried out.

The images exhibited in the Upper Cloister of Fonseca Palace do not aim to be a general outlook of a great country like Bangladesh, but rather a specific showcase of its people, the rickshawalas in Old Dhaka, the university students, some tradespeople, and landscapes beyond the city and, in general, the atmosphere of a country brimming with life.

At the same time, the exhibition is an excuse to remember the success of the Inditex Chair project over the last ten years, thanks to the direct collaboration between the universities of Dhaka, A Coruña, and Santiago de Compostela, and to the resolute and generous support of Inditex, without whose financial support and management it would have been impossible to continue.

02/06/21 - 30/06/21